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EC checking on 13,134 polling centres and 45 counting centres
View(s):- Ballot papers being printed and other poll work on schedule, says EC
By Kasun Warakapitiya
With less than a month to go for the presidential election, the printing of ballot papers is underway while the Election Commission is also engaged in other preparatory work, Election Commissioner General Saman Sri Ratnayake said.
He told the Sunday Timesthat while the printing of ballot papers was underway at the Government Printer’s Department, steps were being taken to ensure that the operation went according to the schedule.
EC Commissioner General Ratnayake: No room for abuse of state property
Pointing out that the deposit and nomination processes were held as scheduled, he said the Commission was now supervising the premises that would be used as 13,134 polling centres and 45 counting centres.
He said they were also checking the vehicles to be used for election work.
The EC has also completed the training classes for postal-vote certifying officers at the district level and is now starting training sessions for officers to be deployed at polling centres.
Mr. Ratnayake said polling cards for postal votes would be issued tomorrow, and the EC had finalised arrangements for
the exercise.
The Commissioner General said they had halted programmes that promoted a candidate by use of state property and would not hesitate to act, regardless of the candidate.
He said the EC was not against development projects and would allow the projects to be carried out according to proper procedure. Yet if they were used to promote candidates, they would be halted.
He also warned that even if a candidate used his own funds and yet used public property for his promotional work, it would be stopped.
Accordingly, opening ceremonies of projects and programmes of granting relief were some of the events that were halted.
He said the EC was preparing to use both cardboard and wooden boxes for the election.
He said that as the ballot paper of the 2024 presidential election was as long as the ballot paper of 2019, the EC had to buy more cardboard boxes. Only state vehicles will be used for pre-election work, but on Election Day, they were planning to use hired vehicles from the Sri Lanka Transport Board, private buses, and vans belonging to school transport operators. Commenting on the death of an independent candidate, Mr. Ratnayake said this was not the only such incident. In 1994, presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake was killed before the election, and his wife contested instead. Likewise, if the candidate’s group proposed someone, that person could be substituted, he said.However, as the ballot paper is already sent for printing, it will have the name and symbol of the candidates who handed over the nomination, even though a substitute would run for the presidential election on behalf of the candidate, who had died.
We cannot reprint 17.1 million ballot papers because of the death of a candidate, the EC official said.
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